In December 2009, a report by the US Census Bureau showed that Michigan was only 1 of 3 states in the nation that experienced in net population loss. A family leaves the state of Michigan every 12 minutes and over the last 10 years nearly a million citizens have left the state.
Over the last 10 years the Detroit News has extensively covered the population migration from Michigan and its impact:
Michigan’s exodus is one of the state’s best known but least understood problems. Long ignored or downplayed, outmigration has been shrugged off partly because it was assumed that those who were leaving were unemployed blue-collar workers and retirees, groups that, in economic terms, don’t cripple the state with their departure.
Population loss of that magnitude is so rare that its impact has never been studied. But The News’ analysis discovered some sobering trends:
• Those leaving Michigan are the people the state most needs to keep — young and college-educated. The state suffered a net loss to migration of 18,000 adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2007 alone — the equivalent of half the staff of the University of Michigan crossing the state line.
By the numbers
465,659: Net loss of Mich. population since 2001
18,000: Net loss of adults with college degrees in 2007
12,000: Net loss of school age kids in 2007
$1.2 billion: Net loss in paychecks in 2007, due to outmigrationMichigan’s exodus is one of the state’s best known but least understood problems. Long ignored or downplayed, outmigration has been shrugged off partly because it was assumed that those who were leaving were unemployed blue-collar workers and retirees, groups that, in economic terms, don’t cripple the state with their departure.
Population loss of that magnitude is so rare that its impact has never been studied. But The News’ analysis discovered some sobering trends:
• Those leaving Michigan are the people the state most needs to keep — young and college-educated. The state suffered a net loss to migration of 18,000 adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2007 alone — the equivalent of half the staff of the University of Michigan crossing the state line.
Michigan has been in a recession and sufferring population losses way before the national meltdown in the country started in December 2007 and continues to this day. Michigan still leads the nation in unemployment with a 14% rate. In 2006, many Michiganders who were contemplating joining the exodus out of the state watch and listened as the incumbent Democratic Gov. Granholm was asked a question during the debates on why should a young family in Macomb stay in Michigan (see the video below)
Committments Made By Granholm In 2006 Debate For Governor
Three years have passed since Governor Granholm told Michigan to re-elect her because ‘the transformation is beginning’. How is that transformation doing under her watch, her words, her committment? Lets review the committments of the Democratic and Republican candidates for Governor in their own words from October 2006.
Transcript of the Devos-Granholm Debate in Grand Rapids In October 2006
Note: The Centrist wants to point out a question that was asked of the candidates during the debates which fundamentally asked ‘Why should a professional family stay in Michigan’. Here are the responses from incumbent Granholm and challenger Devos in 2006:
SG: The next question comes from Devin (Scillian Of WDIV-Detroit), and that is directed to Governor Granholm.
DS: Governor I also brought an email with me. I received this last week after the last debate and I think it was particularly poignant, strikes to the heart of what is happening in our state. My wife and I are independent voters who live in Macomb Township. We are considering job offers to leave the state of Michigan. Last debate with its childish in-fighting is only reinforcing us to leave the state I’m hoping to hear about a vision that involves how Michigan will remain the mitten or succumb to being a global kitten? Governor, since most elections boil down to: Are you better off than you were four years ago? Well, I guess you’ve got 120 seconds to convince this family that they are.
JG: What I want to do is convince them that we’ve set in motion an aggressive economic plan. And you need to know, we all know Michigan’s economy is not where we’d like it to be because of our over-reliance on the auto industry. We love the auto sector. But we need to diversify our economy. It’s why no other state is doing what we are doing.
The Democratic Leadership in Michigan failed to diversify the economy in 2006 and the population migration only became worse with the bankruptcy and bailout of 2 of the big 3 auto in Detroit and the national meltdown of the economy. Michigan is dependent on 1 major industry – auto. Its is consistenly ranked as by Forbes as one of the worst places to do business. Its government structure like the pre-bankruptcy GM and Chrysler is resistant to any real reforms. Thus, when Governor Granholm had her 120 seconds during the 2006 debates to answer the question"
"My wife and I are independent voters who live in Macomb Township. We are considering job offers to leave the state of Michigan. Last debate with its childish in-fighting is only reinforcing us to leave the state I’m hoping to hear about a vision that involves how Michigan will remain the mitten or succumb to being a global kitten? Governor, since most elections boil down to: Are you better off than you were four years ago? Well, I guess you’ve got 120 seconds to convince this family that they are.
It is now very apparent that the family in Macomb is not better off than they were 4 years ago and furthermore they are probrably joining the exodus of those that the Detroit News analysis would say Michigan needs to retain the most:
Those leaving Michigan are the people the state most needs to keep — young and college-educated. The state suffered a net loss to migration of 18,000 adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2007 alone — the equivalent of half the staff of the University of Michigan crossing the state line.
The billions of stimulus dollars that are flowing into Michigan for team Obama-Granholm-Cherry seem to have created or saved 33,000 jobs for teachers, police and fireman. A total of 33,000 jobs saved or created and yet in 2007 alone their was a total of 18,000 adults with college degrees that were not teachers, police or fireman that left the state, probrably for good.
If the US Census Bureau report on the continued staggering population losses from Michigan and the Detroit News analysis of college educated families and the failure of the Democratic Governor to diversify the economy in Michigan before the great recession hit the nation isnt enough to convince anyone still left in Michigan that the state leadership has failed them. Then take a look at this video, it certainly convinced me and millions of others who watched the video to call for the next U-Haul out of town….
In an earlier post this year (2009), this Centrist and millions of Michiganders read a detailed analysis prepared by the Detroit News on the staggering population losses that Michigan is experiencing.
People are leaving Michigan at a staggering rate. About 109,000 more people left Michigan last year than moved in. It is one of the worst rates in the nation, quadruple the loss of just eight years ago.
Posted By Centrist on April 10, 2009
Leaving Michigan Behind: Eight-year population exodus staggers state
Outflow of skilled, educated workers crimps Michigan’s recovery
People are leaving Michigan at a staggering rate. About 109,000 more people left Michigan last year than moved in. It is one of the worst rates in the nation, quadruple the loss of just eight years ago. The state loses a family every 12 minutes, and the families who are leaving — young, well-educated high-income earners — are the people the state desperately needs to rebuild.
Long treated as a symptom of Michigan’s economic woes, outmigration has exploded into a massive problem of its own, a slow-motion Katrina splintering families, gutting state coffers and crippling an already hobbled economy, one moving van at a time.
Poorer, less educated
Michigan’s exodus is one of the state’s best known but least understood problems. Long ignored or downplayed, outmigration has been shrugged off partly because it was assumed that those who were leaving were unemployed blue-collar workers and retirees, groups that, in economic terms, don’t cripple the state with their departure.
Population loss of that magnitude is so rare that its impact has never been studied. But The News’ analysis discovered some sobering trends:
• Those leaving Michigan are the people the state most needs to keep — young and college-educated. The state suffered a net loss to migration of 18,000 adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2007 alone — the equivalent of half the staff of the University of Michigan crossing the state line.
By the numbers
465,659: Net loss of Mich. population since 2001
18,000: Net loss of adults with college degrees in 2007
12,000: Net loss of school age kids in 2007
$1.2 billion: Net loss in paychecks in 2007, due to outmigration
The staggering populations losses in Michigan were occuring way before the country experienced the start of the economic meltdown in December 2008.
From A 2007 Article
They’re Out of Here! Moving Companies say people are leaving Michigan
Grand Rapids – They see it everyday, more and more families on the move.
"The majority of the people that are moving are moving out of the state," said Gary Steensma, Vice President and General of Corrigan United Van Lines.
All the items on the Corrigan Grand Rapids warehouse floor belong to people leaving Michigan.
"Once they’re out, they’re out and not very many are coming back,? said Steensma.
Right now, the business is lucrative, but long term, it’s a huge problem for any service company.
"Our fear is that when all those people move out, and nobody’s moving back in our business line, will have to change," said Steensma.
According to United Van Lines data 65% of Michigan moves are outbound. The same trend is seen by other movers.
From last year to this year our interstate moving has pretty much doubled the first quarter of the state moving people out of Michigan," said Jon Sorber, Executive Vice President of Two Men and a Truck.
To blame are the continuous loss of manufacturing jobs, just recently Pfizer made drastic cuts.
By the end of 2007 Pfizer has informed us that they will be relocating 800 people," said Steensma
Public confidence is at an all time low. 11% of 600 people questioned in an EPIC-MRA Poll say they are likely or certain to leave in 5 years…that translates into roughly 600,000 people from the adult population. According to Craig Ruff, senior fellow at Public Sector Consultants Inc., if this the survey come true, it could make for an even worse economy and a loss in the share of power in Washington.
"If we had a net loss of 600,000 people we would likely lose a seat in the United States House of Representatives."
So while the state could shape up it has to do so soon, before more people ship out.
In December 2009, it was officially reported by the US Census Bureau that Michigan is only 1 of 3 states in the nation to see their population go down in the last year.
Via Detnews.com
December 23, 2009
Economic woes continued to force thousands of Michiganians to leave the state, leading the overall population to drop below 10 million for the first time since 2000, according to population estimates released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The July 1, 2009, population estimate shows the state lost an estimated 32,759 people, the fourth consecutive year the population fell. Only Maine and Rhode Island saw their population go down in the last year.
Michigan has been bleeding people since 2005, and at the heart of the decline has been the growing exodus of people moving out looking for work. The current estimate puts Michigan’s population at 9,969,727, down from 10,002,486 in 2008. The state has seen a net loss of more than a half-million people to other states since 2001 — a number that swamps the natural increase from a greater number of births than deaths.
For a number of years, the relative vibrancy of the nation’s economy gave unemployed Michigan workers a chance to seek jobs in the Sun Belt and across the country. But with the rest of the nation fully consumed by the recession in 2008, some experts suspected there would be fewer opportunities for workers to flee Michigan.
But the estimates released Wednesday show that people still found ways to leave — either for another job, retirement or education. Although the outmigration slowed, from an estimated 103,637 from 2007 to 2008 to 87,339 from 2008 to 2009, it still pulled the state’s population into the negative.
At current trends, Georgia’s population — growing at a steady clip for years — could pass Michigan as early as next year to become the eighth largest state in the country. Florida was the last state to surpass Michigan, back in 1979
See all interactive maps on the population loss from Michigan (here)
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